Journal des Bleus: Areola spared, Kunde in front of the media and the mysterious exchange

Smiles, games and the surrounding good mood, which is confirmed day by day. The French players, already qualified for the round of 16, had a light press session this Monday, two days before their meeting with Tunisia (Wednesday, 16:00).

Fact: only areolas are missing

This Monday, there was an element missing from the ground for a workout open to the media: Alphonse Areola. The third goalkeeper of the French national team, who remained in treatment, did not participate in collective training due to lower back pain. His case does not inspire serious concern to the staff, who on Tuesday have to decide between Hugo Lloris and Steve Mandanda to keep the tricolor cage against Tunisia on Wednesday (16:00) on the occasion of the last group match before round of 16.

Talk of the day: Deschamps – Ravio

After an easy one-hour practice, Didier Deschamps, with his hand over his mouth, and Franck Ravio, the goalkeeping coach, talked for several minutes under the scrutiny of the few journalists still present in the stands. The content of their exchange was not heard, but the scene clearly did not go unnoticed.

Statement of the Day: “Maybe I played there once…”

After Lucas Hernandez’s package, his brother Theo was the only true specialist at left-back, which leaves him no way to replace him. Eduardo Camavinga tried several times in this roster in recent days, which proved to be interesting, but there is another option with Jules Kunde, who replaced him in this position during the confrontation with Al Markhiya (Qatari D 1), and the next day success against Australia. (4-1).

When asked at a press conference about the possibility of playing on a different flank than the right, the Barcelona player answered bluntly: “We’ll see. Maybe I used to play there. Why not ? In any case, I’ll do my best if that’s the case. »

Exercise of the day: stop! on the corner stand

As in several previous practices, the Blues ended the session with a playful corner post exercise with a simple rule: push the ball and make it stop in the quarter circle. The story doesn’t say if the bet was made upstream, but the last time it was the loser (Aurélien Chuameni) who, back at base camp, had to serve his partners during dinner at the table.